E-mail, Feeds, 'n' Stuff

Friday, October 15, 2010

You missed it

It was an all-day retreat of the repackaged Portland "planning and sustainability commission." Too precious. Streetcar Smith, a Gerding Edlen type, a former Cesar Chavez Boulevard agitator, Lee Pearlman lurking in the shadows watching for a petition to deface, a bunch of city bureau face cards racking up their PERS, a lunchtime keynote from Mayor Creepy (who urges everybody a couple of times to be "holistic"), a touchy-feely "What is sustainability to me?" session, and a day full of "Holds a passion in her life through work," "It’s about the lens and how you look at projects," " a fundamental belief is that everything is connected to and is about the future"... you get the picture.

Is it sustainable for taxpayers to pay for a lot of people who at the end of the day talk a lot, dream a lot, eat a lot...but don't actually do anything?

The "Bureau of Sustainability" shouldn't be about the environment. It should be a tiny bureau with just a couple employees, whose job is to review each employee, project, bureau, to ensure fiscal sustainability.

If the employee, project or bureau can pay for itself (that can include general property tax revenue) than it stays.

If the employee, project or bureau can't pay for itself, then it is terminated. That means when the federal grant to pay for a project expires, the project expires too. When the property tax abatement kicks in and prevents something from being funded, then that something gets terminated until the revenue rolls in.

When I think of "sustainable," I think of producing something (ie, vegetables) in a manner that doesn't damage the resources (such as nutrients in the soil). I wish the City would think about Sustainable Funding in that same way--paying for things in a manner that doesn't damage my wallet!

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 80
At this date last year: 89
Total run in 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269